Building a learning community

Dr Jayanta Biswas: Learning is a lifetime experience

A great philosopher and teacher once said - "There are four corners to the learning life of everyone. As a teacher, I have shown you one corner, now it is for you to discover the other three corners to make your life complete".

Learning is a lifetime experience and cannot be achieved overnight! Learning requires an open mind and a welcoming heart for change. Learning is a process and requires frequent un-learning and re-learning! Life experiences are the biggest teachers. School teachers are merely facilitators who show the pathways to learning; the actual process is executed by the learners themselves. We need to educate the mentors (teachers) on how to facilitate and provide learning experiences for young learners.

Our society and our life have become so complex with the 360-degree bombardment of 'development'; to be able to survive this and complete the cycle of life is what achievement is all about. Moral values have taken a backseat and the only objects of worship are greed and hatred; how do we guide and mentor the young generation in such a situation?

The educational system in our country is going through several doctored alterations, some “right” and some not so “right”. It is not merely sufficient to have a “right to education”; the process of education needs to be re-oriented in the “right’ direction. Any “right” without the “right” objectives is NOT “right”. Unfortunately, in our society, the people who make the decisions about people’s “rights” have other channels of thought and the ego is not “killed’ for the greater truth. Hopefully, we will be able to endeavour to channelise the thought process of our younger generation in the “right’ direction.